Orange Bowl Finale and Coincidences

Down to the season finale for the Golden Panthers and of course, the Orange Bowl finale.

What a great football stadium during the great Don Shula Dolphins years.

Before we get into the FIU/North Texas game, I'm not much into superstition, but anybody notice the eerie similarities between the Golden Panthers and Dolphins games this weekend?

The two Miami teams have identical records and are at home.

Both Miami teams are playing teams with poor records who both wear green and white colors, have predominantly white helmets with green highlights and both opponents (North Texas and New York Jets) -- regardless of how bad they are -- have a history of giving FIU and the Dolphins problems. Not to mention last season's FIU/NT game went 7 overtimes and the highest scoring game in Dolphins history was a Jets' 51-45 overtime win over the Dolphins in 1986. Somebody cue Rod Serling.

On to the FIU game. Despite the 2-9 record, North Texas has been rolling on offense and FIU has not been on defense. The Mean Green have scored 28, 62, 27, and 27 points in their last four games. The 62 came in a loss to Navy.

FIU's run defense has given up 249, 177, 287 and 228 yards on the ground in the last four. NT has a mini-Tim Tebow in Giovanni Vizza, who can run as effectively as he throws.

Paul McCall makes his first start for FIU at quarterback. The sophomore showed encouraging signs in putting up 20 fourth quarter points last week. The Golden Panthers will need to score plenty on Saturday to stay with the Mean Green, because I haven't any seen evidence from the FIU defense the last few weeks that convinces me they can stop the run.

The GPP went against the logical choice last week thinking FIU would be pumped up enough for the Shula Bowl to overcome Florida Atlantic's better talent. The Owls proved me wrong.

Once again will not adhere to logical thinking and will count on the emotional edge of the final game of the season and the OB. Plus, the Dolphins gotta beat the Jets on Sunday too, right?

The GPP thinks: FIU 30, North Texas 28.

PANTHER PAWSE

What a horrible performance by the FIU hoops team last night. You can't take away from Robert Morris and his 4 bros. shooting prowess. They hit an astronomical 70 percent of their 3's, but FIU was not mentally or physically in Pharmed Arena last night. The offense was stagnant. No Golden Panther would dare attack the basket, instead settling for jumpers. And when FIU got in the paint whether it was a shot or a rebound, a much more physical Colonials team just took FIU's lunch. Golden Panthers would come down with rebounds and have the ball stripped or would go up for shots in the paint and have the ball stripped. Right now, the Golden Panthers hoopsters seem like a very soft bunch. Like Carvel's vanilla ice cream. It got so bad, I had the game story written 5 minutes into the second half after RM drained 5 consecutive 3's to start the second half. If this keeps up, Florida Gulf Coast, Buffalo and the Hurricanes are going to smoke FIU in the next 3 games.

Yandro: Yes, Stosh was part of the Canadian team that FIU clobbered last month. But Stosh did not pitch in that game.

alt7787: No, writers do not write headlines at the Miami Herald. McCall is a sophomore on the football field, but a senior in the classroom. McCall said the other day that he will graduate this summer with a degree in electrical engineering.